Your Flamenco journey will always be a reflection of where you are at in life, in your own personal growth as a person. Let me give you an example through my own path and growth

I first found Flamenco at age 19, on my 19th birthday in fact, and the years that followed definitely reflected coming out of adolescence and moving into adulthood. Initially, all I was interested in was the passion and the feeling. I was carefree and wanted adventure. In Flamenco, my focus was less on technique and doing complicated things and more on feeling and releasing a lot of emotions and nervous energy which I had in spades as a young adult. The move to Sevilla, Spain (after 5 years of taking classes in London) was a big wake up call (or slap in the face) to the fact that I needed to grow up and pay more attention to deeply comprehending all the many facets of Flamenco. And so my mid to late 20´s were very much about serious study, feeling like an idiot, standing at the back and being the worst in the class and getting it wrong time and time again. I had never been a grounded person up until then, so those years were a rough crash course on having your feet on the ground. See how through Flamenco I was directly growing as a person? It directly mirrored my personal growth. Before I turned 30, I moved to Granada, and by the time I moved here, I had 10 years of material including choreography and technique all jumbled up in my head. This was the time for me to mentally and physically make sense of everything I had learnt and I started to work very much alone. I began creating my own choreographies and discovering who I am/what I am like as a Flamenco dancer. I knew what and who I admired amongst Flamenco dancers and musicians, but who was I in all this? I started to shed a lot of skins I had learnt from other teachers and am continuing to do so. Every year my tastes change a little bit and it´s a constant process of evolution.

So what will your Flamenco Spiritual journey look like?

To me, the answer to that question is very exciting: only you will know. Nobody can tell you how you´ll change and grow on your Flamenco path, just as they can´t predict how you´ll change over the years in life. For me they are one and the same: Flamenco is life. One thing´s for sure, just as every dancer and human has their strengths and weaknesses, this will be exposed to you on your Flamenco journey. If you are quite a gentle person, your forté might me the arms and dancing gracefully, but you might struggle with footwork (and perhaps you struggle with life situations which require you to be anchored and grounded). If you are a very dynamic, intellectual person, you might find the footwork easy, but struggle with the more feminine, graceful movements. Your dance will reveal everything about you.

Your Flamenco journey is undoubtedly life long, and so it does well to walk it with patience. Flamenco attracts a lot of strong personalities, especially amongst the dancers, and some have a push and pull relationship between ego and humility. If you are impatient to learn and execute this incredibly powerful and beautiful artform over night (or even in a few years), Flamenco will test you and make you humble. The best advice I can give is to tread with (self) love, patience and always honour the journey, rather than seek the destination. That way, you will savour and enjoy your individual, unique path so much more.